[10] Anticipating a large influx of calls following the broadcast, the real-life Samaritans obtained an extra telephone number to add up to 50 more lines from callers seeking assistance.

[25] In the third episode, "Hunted", Meg Jenkins' character, Janet, clashes with a police detective inspector played by Gordon Jackson when her boyfriend Patrick (David Allister) commits a crime.

[26] The fourth episode, "Dense Forest, Hungry Wolves", featured Percy Herbert as a 50-year-old civil engineer whose firm goes bankrupt due to the recession in the construction industry.

[29] Jean Marsh portrayed Miranda, an outwardly successful fashion designer who comes across as rude and self-centred and, despite initially "hav[ing] everything", suddenly breaks up with her fiancé, gets herself fired, and alienates her best friend.

[35] The final episode on 29 April 1972, called "Fallen Star", featured Patrick Troughton as Jim Goody, a former professional football player who clings to his past glories but is bankrupt and bitter, and reaches out to the Samaritans after his wife leaves him.

[36][37] The episode has a happy ending when the ex-footballer, at first too proud to accept what he perceived as "charity" from a director of his old football club, comes to terms with working as a chauffeur as a solution to his financial problems.

[38] Critics did not like the plot, which at one point had the angry father planting marijuana in his teenage son's bedroom and reporting him to the police for revenge, complaining that it seemed unrealistic and implausible.

[14] In a review for The Observer, George Melly wrote, "Seldom have I seen on television a more incredible hotch-potch of morally dubious attitudes, fake drama and the worst kind of tear-jerking schmalz.

"[39] Stanley Reynolds suggested that the humour was deliberate, writing in The Times that it "was not a comedy but it had definite and very funny comic overtones...One knows that often when a joke is interpreted the meaning behind it is tragic, and this was the case here.

"[40] The Birmingham Post's Pamela Hedges found "some flashes of reality" and suggested that if The Befrienders were to become a full series, there were "vast possibilities for 'human stories' which could have wide television appeal".

[41] A bright spot was actress Faith Brook, who was praised by Blackmore for her "magnificent" turn as the boy's mother,[39] which Melly called "a pathetic creature...and by far the best conceived character in the play".

"[42] Meanwhile, Terry Metcalf of The Birmingham Post complained that the story was "stumbling and sentimental" with not enough content for the programme's full 50-minute run, resulting in an episode with too much exposition and detail about the Samaritans' mission and approach.

[43] In an article published on 18 March 1972, lead actress Megs Jenkins told the Hull Daily Mail that following the initial broadcast of The Befrienders, the Samaritans had gained 250 new volunteers in London alone.

[48] In 2022, the Express & Echo reported that the television series had inspired a volunteer at the organisation's Exeter, Mid & East Devon branch, who went on to work with the Samaritans for fifty years.